The Shelter Programs: Training and Adoption
The Road Home K9 Rescue partners with the Yolo County Animal Services’s shelter training team in two programs:
The Shelter Training Program: The Road Home staff partners with other trainers to design and implement in-shelter training of dogs on the adoption floor. Volunteers in these programs devote their time and skills to improve the adoptability of dogs at the shelter, and they work with potential adopters to identify good matches and to give support for successful adoptions.
The Shelter Adoption program: The Road Home staff partners with shelter staff and volunteers to identify adoptable dogs among those scheduled for euthanasia. These dogs include dogs with straightforward behavior problems that can be easily changed with training or dogs with non-serious health problems such as overweight or senior dogs–that is, dogs usually deemed unadoptable in the shelter environment. These dogs are brought into foster care by TRH volunteers and readied for adoption
Animal Hoarding:
Education and Assistance to Humane Organizations
Animal hoarding is now a well understood psychiatric disorder, thanks to research at Tufts University, but animal hoarding remains misunderstood by the public at large. Animal hoarding is caused when mental illness goes untreated. It becomes a catastrophe not only for the animals that may suffer horrific abuse, but also for the hoarder for him or herself, and the hoarder’s immediate family members, who may be enablers and victims themselves. It is also a burden for the neighbors, the community, and local law enforcement, because of the magnitude of the case, with the large number of animals and the stress of caring for these animals properly while they are in custody awaiting legal prosecution of the animal cruelty violations.
Successful resolution of animal hoarding cases depends therefore on a collaboration of many parties, combining and integrating efforts of local law enforcement and of a collection of non-profit organizations and local volunteers. This consortium of agencies is often difficult to coordinate and keep on track for the welfare of the animals and other victims, but the collective effort is essential to resolving cases involving so many animals.
Cathy and Tracey have learned much from direct experience in assisting law enforcement in such cases primarily in the realm of coordinating the care of large numbers of animals, dealing with the special problems that dogs coming from hoarding situations have, fundraising and other kinds of assistance needed by law enforcement officials and their staff when faced with cases of this magnitude.
To find out more about our services, email animalhoarding@theroadhome-dogs.org